


Oh How the Year Went By

by Anijade



Series: Seasons of Love [4]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:21:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29251401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anijade/pseuds/Anijade
Summary: Well here we are back at the beginning. More holidays to come
Relationships: Beth Boland/Dean Boland, Beth Boland/Rio, Ruby Hill/Stan Hill
Series: Seasons of Love [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643827
Kudos: 26





	Oh How the Year Went By

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Dropkickdisco for reviewing.

After Halloween, Beth hadn’t been sure how things were going to go. The virus was going rampant, and it had become clear the election was going to be a real issue. Still, Beth was determined for it not to hurt, or affect the kids. Their school bubble did well. Ruby used the election as an opportunity to really teach the kids about politics, and to witness first hand corruption. She felt a little like a hypocrite, wishing that it would all go away. Still, by the time Thanksgiving came around, it was good for just one day, to pretend everything was normal. 

Dean had found out that Rio was going to be at Thanksgiving Dinner, and had made demands that he be included. After talking it over, they had decided to let him join. Beth made it clear that if he caused trouble, there would be consequences.

Day of, Beth was pacing in the kitchen with nerves, as Annie perched on the island.

“You gotta pull yourself together Beth, how are you supposed to referee this nonsense if you’re a nervous wreck?”

“Why did I agree to this Annie, I’ve lost my mind, clearly.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that happened a while ago, you have to deal with it now. Stan promised he’d keep Dean in check, and hopefully distracted.

Beth made a face. “I hate that he has to do that. He’s not really fond of Dean.”

“Someone had to bite that bullet Beth, and it couldn't be you. You’re doing all the cooking, and while gang friend is helping with the kids, it's a lot. Deansitting is the least he could do, for a good meal.”

There was no time to respond as the doorbell rang, and she heard Kenny open the door. “Mom, Aunt Ruby is here!”

“Well let them in Kenny, honestly!” Beth groused, as she took a deep breath. Preparing herself for the spectacle that was on its way.

The house was loud with all the kids in the house. Dean and Stan were watching football, when Marcus and Rio arrived. Dean immediately rolled his eyes, as Rio kissed Beth lightly.

“Brought those pastries you like, darlin’.”

“Thank you, they look great. I have the desserts on the buffet.” 

He nodded, and went to put them in the dining room, as Marcus took off in search of Jane. As the turkey came out, Annie worked on wrangling the kids to their table. By the time everyone was settled, it was a highly charged atmosphere at the table.

Beth was in the kitchen, about to bring out the turkey as she whispered to Ruby. “This was a huge mistake.”

“Too late for regrets now, Baby Cheeks, get out there and deal with your former husband.”

Stan and Ruby did their best to keep the mood light. Surprisingly, Rio and Stan had a lot in common, and knew many of the same, non criminal people. Their schools had been rivals at football, although Rio was a couple years behind them.

Dean sat there and steamed. He briefly offered his opinion of their team back in the day, and Rio made a comment about how long ago it was.

“You know what? She’s going to get tired of you as her boytoy, and trade you in like she did me!” Dean growled.

Rio scoffed. “You think that’s why she left you? Not that you fucked around with anyone who’d have you? That couldn’t have been the reason? Man, you don’t take any responsibility for your shit.”

Dean glared at Beth. “You’re going to let him speak to me like this?”

Annie rolled her eyes. “What part was a lie, huh Deansie? I’m not his biggest fan, but dude, you really lost what you lost because of you, not him.”

Beth’s eyes went wide, and she took a deep breath. “Look, the fallout of our marriage doesn’t matter anymore. Dean, sit down and eat, or go home. “ She instructed. “Unless, you want all the dirty laundry to fall out.”

She glanced at Rio, who was studying his plate and was grateful not to see his smug smirk. Dean huffed, but sat down again. All they had to do was get through the dessert, and they’d be free to go their separate ways.

Taking a careful bite, Beth felt Rio give her knee a squeeze, and she shot him a soft smile. The rest of the meal was stilted, but the kids joined them to talk about what they were thankful for, before going to watch a movie.

Beth, Annie, and Ruby were clearing the table, mostly to get away from the tension, when Dean entered the kitchen.

“So are you happy Beth? You ruined Thanksgiving for the kids.” He accused. Beth turned to him with an incredulous look on her face.

“Are you kidding me? You’re the one who started something. It could have been a pleasant meal, until you lost your shit.”

“Having your boytoy for Thanksgiving is ridiculous!” It sends a bad message to the kids.”

“What message is that? That their mother is a person? That I deserve to be happy and not taken advantage of? You didn’t have to be here, you’re barely around anyways. You came to start trouble.”

“I came here to show you how good we were together.”

“Then you failed, monumentally. All you did was remind me of all the reasons I can’t stand you.”

A husky “Ah hmm” broke up the fight, as Dean turned his angry gaze on Rio.

“Yo, man, your kids can hear you. You’re upsettin’ them.”

“You being here is upsetting them.” Dean countered.

Rio shook his head. “Nah man, you don’t get to play the victim here. I’ve been here the times you ain’t, got time to pick up the kids an’ spend time with them. They know they can count on me, whattabout you? Man up dude, before you bring me into the mix.”

Dean’s face went red, and he looked expectantly at Beth. “Are you going to just let him talk to me like that?”

Beth gave him an incredulous look. “I don’t let him do anything Dean, he's his own person, also where’s the lie? You barely keep up with visitation, or follow through with anything you say.”

“I get busy, I have to work.” He explained.

“And I don’t work? Why do you think your time is more valuable than mine? Why shouldn’t I be able to have a night off,and just be an adult? Dean, you’re spoiled, and I don’t have time for that anymore. You’re not my problem.”

“I’ll get the judge to bar him from the kids, criminal element and all.”

Beth laughed, “That’s funny that you’d think I hadn’t considered you’d do that. He’s already been cleared by the judge, you can’t change that. Evidence and all.”

“How about he shot me?”

“How about insurance fraud, I kept receipts.”

Dean blanched. “You’d do that to me? Father of your children?”

She batted her eyes. “In a heartbeat. I have no loyalty to give you, Dean. You ran out of cards to play. Move on. I have.”

Going red in the face, Dean turned too tightly, and smashed his nose into the doorframe. Even though his nose was streaming blood, he just grabbed his coat and left. A couple minutes later, Kenny came into the kitchen.

“Was that dad?”

Closing her eyes, Beth nodded. “Yeah, he just remembered somewhere else he needed to be, sweetie.”

Kenny frowned. “It sounded like he was being a jerk.”

“Kenny! Don’t say stuff like that about your dad, you know he loves you a lot.”

Shrugging, Kenny rolled his eyes."Yeah, I know, but he’s a jerk too. We’re not blind, Mom."

Beth sagged against the counter. “I was hoping you guys wouldn’t notice too much.”

“Well, we have, and we wanted to say, it’s ok.”

“It's ok?” Beth gave Rio a bewildered look.

“Yeah, we can’t change that he’s a jerk, but we can make the hand offs easier.”

Reaching for her son, Beth pulled him into a hug. “Thank you bubba, but that’s not your job. Your dad and I will figure it out. We’re the adults here, ok?”

The rest of Thanksgiving was subdued, Stan and Ruby went home and the kids were in the game room watching a movie. Annie had stayed for a bit to hang out, make sure Beth was ok and to get leftovers. Beth gave her sister a hug and a smile. “Don’t worry, Dean’s just Dean. We know that. Thanks for staying though.”

Then it was just the two of them, sitting on the couch, Rio had his arm slung over the back of the couch.

“Well, that was an experience.”

Beth gave him a weak smile. “That’s one way of putting it. I’m still glad you were here. He’d have been making snide comments about you if you weren’t.”

Rio snorted, “An’ apparently, trying to get back with you.”

She scrunched her face up. “That was never going to happen, even if you weren’t here, but you did make the point.”

“It’ll be ok Mama. Your kids get the deal, and now that they do, they won’t play ball with him.”

“He’s going to say I turned them against him.”

“Yeah he will, darlin’, but we all know it’s not true.”

“He’s going to claim you're a criminal.”

“He can try, you already added me to the list of adults they have contact with. Gretchen will destroy anyone tryin’ to pin something on me.”

Snuggling into him on the couch, Beth sighed. “It was foolish of me to think we could have a nice Thanksgiving.”

“Nah, not foolish, just hopeful, Elizabeth. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with wantin’ to do somethin’ nice for your kids. He chose to make it an issue.”

“Well, that’s not happening again. If he doesn’t take the kids at Christmas, or they don’t want to go, he’s not invited.”

“There you go, bossin’ up.”

Beth snorted, “Having enough isn’t bossing up, but I’ll take it. The kids are getting older, so yeah, I’ll take their input on how things are handled.”

As expected, the speed of Thanksgiving to Christmas passed by in a blink, and Beth was disturbed with how many people were going to parties. The business was good, and that made things easier. She had done most of the shopping, so it was mostly about decorating, and food.

Having found that math was easier taught with cooking, Beth had the kids working on cookies.

“Mommy it says ½ cup of sugar but I can only find the ¼ cup.” Jane gave Beth a bewildered look.

“That’s alright Bubba, let's work on our fractions. What’s ¼ + ¼?”

Jane frowned in concentration as she tried to remember the lesson they'd had in fractions. “Umm, I use two ¼ cups?” She asked, looking up at Beth.

“That’s right! You’ve got it, baby. Put it in the bowl, and then get out the milk.” As Jane went to get the milk, she checked in on Emma and Danny, who were setting up the decorating station.

“Ok, can you tell me how you divided up the supplies?” Beth asked them

Danny explained how he and Emma had taken the sprinkles and candies to divide them into equal bowls. They'd divided them all along the table, so they would each have enough room, and not have to stretch across the table for things.

“Great job kids, this might be the cleanest decorating party we’ve ever had.”

“Don’t go jinxin' us, Mama.” A deep voice came from the backyard. “These kids don’t know how do anythin’ clean, ain’t that right?” 

He placed a light hand on Beth’s hip. She was ok with light PDA around the kids. But after Thanksgiving, she wasn’t ready to add the complication of Mommy dating again, even if they were comfortable having him and Marcus around. They made time together on Dean’s weekends. Exploring their relationship with less stress of not trusting each other, was a new experience for both of them. Who knew a pandemic would help put their past behind them?

“You got them doin’ all this, for what? We ain’t havin’ a Christmas party, are we?”

“Beth shook her head. “Nothing like that, but I thought maybe it would be nice to take plates around the neighborhood. Send some to Rhea, and your mom. Cookies are an easy mass, Christmas present.” She explained. “Also, we have three boys here who eat like food is a fad. Most of it will be gone before Christmas.”

They left the kids to their decorating adventure, and went to the office, one of the few rooms that had a lock on it. Behind closed doors, Rio pushed Beth up against the wall, kissed into her neck as his hands found her waist, lifting her leg to wrap around him. She panted as her head went back.

“Rio, the kids are on the other side of this door.” she moaned. He chuckled lowly. “Yeah, I know, just gettin’ you worked up for tonight.”

Squirming away, she smoothed down her shirt, trying to frown at him. “Behave, I don’t want to explain why I have a hickey on my neck.”

“You’re no fun Mama, it ain’t like they don’t know.” Rio told her with a laugh, as he released her.

“Let’s get past Christmas before we go throwing more things in the mix. They’re barely getting used to Dean skipping his visits, we’ll give them a more normal holiday and then test out how they feel about us.”

Rio didn’t like it, but he understood. He had heard Emma crying to Beth about why Daddy was mad all the time when they saw him. Apparently, Jane had made the mistake of talking about something she and Marcus were working on at school, cand it had set him off. Beth had had to reason with him not to teach her ex a lesson but he had the privilege of listening to her read Dean the riot act.

“A’ight but it’s almost been a year since we mended fences.”

“So, what do you want to call us?” Beth asked him, genuinely curious.

“I dunno, partners? Special friends?”

“I’m guessing boyfriend is out.”

He gave her a dirty look. “I look like a boy mama?”

“You don’t feel like a boy.” Beth teased causing Rio to groan as he pulled her to him. “Don’t be startin’ somethin’ you can’t finish now.”

Taking a deep breath Beth pushed him away. “Alright time to be parents and pray to god the dining room hasn’t been hit by a sprinkle bomb.”

Making sure she didn’t look too rumpled before she opened the door. Looking over her shoulder Beth smirked. “Don’t take too long or Marcus is going to start asking where you are.”

Kitchen disasters aside it was a calm night ending with the kids decorating the Christmas tree and then watching Elf before being taken up to bed. Beth went to sit with Emma while Rio managed Jane and Marcus.

“Daddy?” Marcus asked.

“What’s up pop?” Rio asked with a soft smile.

“We’re having Christmas here right? Like a family?”

Beth had gotten to the door of the bedroom as Rio started to answer the question. 

“I dunno pop, would that be ok with you if we did?”

Marcus paused to think for a second before nodding. “Can we still see Abuela and Mommy/”

“Of course lil’ man. You’re spending Christmas eve with Mommy and Robin an’ they’ll drop you here on their way to Robin’s folk place.”

Rhea’s relationship was new, and it was the first time she’d be meeting Robin's kids. Then Marcus would meet them on New Year’s Eve.

“Then we are, if everyone’s ok with it.” Rio looked up at Jane in the top bunk, looking for an answer.

“I’d be sad if Marcus wasn’t there to open presents.”

The comment caused Beth to snort, getting everyone’s attention. She held her hands up. “Don’t worry, we won’t do presents until everyone’s here. I'll even make a special breakfast for everyone.” she promised

“Guess that’s settled. Now, go to bed.” Rio kissed Marcus’ forehead, before standing up. He joined her at the door, as Beth reached for the light switch. “You’ve got five minutes of giggle time, and then you need to be asleep.

Back in the bedroom, Beth flopped onto the bed. “I guess that helped some. Is he nervous about spending NYE with Robin’s kids?”

Joining her on the bed, Rio looked at her. “Yeah, probably. Wit’ you, he knew your kids before he knew we knew each other. Usin’ the same park was an ice breaker that made it more organic. Robin’s kids are older, ‘round Kenny’s age. More of an unknown.”

Beth chuckled, “Not sure Kenny was the best example of a teenager for him.” Kenny was moody, and often mean to his siblings.

“Yeah, maybe not, but they’re gonna be a part of his life. So he’s got to get to know them, an’ make it work.”

He had a point; life didn’t stop even in a pandemic. Rhea and Robin were happy, so Marcus had to get used to his expanding family.

Stretching, Rio took the opportunity to pull Beth into straddling him.

“Enough about our exes, we have time for us.” He thrust his hips up against hers, causing Beth to moan, as she rubbed herself against him.

“Shhhh, Mama, can’t be makin’ noise like that. Kids ain’t asleep yet.” Rio teased, as his hands held her hips, giving her better balance to grind herself against him.

Beth groaned as she leaned down to kiss him. “Guess we’ll have to wait until they are asleep, or until they're out of the house.” She teased.

“Nah, Ma. I ain’t waitin’, you’re just gonna have to control yourself.” Rio growled, as he rolled over, pinning her to the bed. “Can you do it? Be a good girl and not make any noise?” he asked with a grin.

Raising his hips, Beth gave him a heated look as she thrust up pointedly. “I guess that depends if you’re going to get to it.”

“Guess I better get to it then.” Rio told her with a smile, as he leaned in for a kiss. Beth spent the rest of the night trying to stay quiet.

Soon, it was days before Christmas, and Beth was still trying to nail down Dean and the plans for the kids. He had vacillated between wanting them Christmas Eve Eve, and Boxing Day. She was about to tell him that he’d have to wait until the next week to see them. She spent every night wrapping presents, and pre-making dishes in advance of Christmas dinner. 

Between her and Ruby, they had a lavish day planned, starting with a brunch and second part of the gift opening. Later, they would have dinner and rest after eating all the food. Annie had talked her out of an actual itinerary, but she hoped for organized chaos.

With Dean finally organized, Beth was free by Christmas Eve, having planned a "do it yourself" dinner, a mini pizza bar. Rio had set up the outside heater, and was ready to start the fire pit so they could make s’mores.

Annie arrived early with Ben, and he played video games with Kenny, while Annie drank a beer, watching Beth set up the pizza station.

“Annie, if you’re going to be in the kitchen, can you at least be useful?”

“What are you expecting? You know I’m not safe to make food.”

“Then start with shredding the cheese, and draining olives. It’s not like we’re cooking.”

Rio had bought a portable pizza oven. He had fun cooking with, for some reason, but for something like this, it was actually perfect. They could have hand tossed, personal pizzas in less than ninety seconds.

Ruby, Stan, and kids arrived, placing gifts for Christmas under the tree for the next morning. 

“Hey lady, do you need any help?” Ruby asked. Beth gave Annie a dirty look. “Yes, can you chop up the onions and peppers while Annie shreds cheese?”

With a huff, Annie got off of her stool and stomped to the fridge to pull out the cheese, muttering something about slave labour causing Ruby to shake her head and laugh. “Glad things don’t change between the two of you.”

Both sisters rolled their eyes, but gave each other a smile. After that, things went more smoothly. After dinner, the kids reveled in the fact they were allowed to run around outside, and the large fire pit was more warming than expected.

“B, you ready for tomorrow?”

Beth frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be? Dean and Judith decided that going to Florida was a better use of their holiday. So that won’t be a big deal. He’s got them for New Years Eve and Annie will be back up if he does what he does.”

Annie yawned. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I need to call it a night, if you want me here by nine tomorrow.”

Ruby laughed, but then called the kids telling them to head around to the front. She and Stan would meet them at the car. Annie rounded Ben up from inside, and headed home.

Rounding up the kids, Beth and Rio finally fell into bed exhausted. Beth had mentioned that things were more tackled that she had been in previous years.

“You know, I’d be up all night in the past, wrapping presents, and getting food prepped. I think this might be the first time in ten years that I’m in bed by midnight.”

Rio huffed. “Don’t know how. I barely did a thing, an’ I’m exhausted Mama. You do too much.”

“I did less this year, thanks to you, so thank you for that.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think I have ever done that much for Christmas. An’ Rhea ain’t as particular as you are.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t say anal.”

“Well….” Rio looked at her with a smirk, causing Beth to lightly smack him. “A’ight Ma, go to sleep, these kids are gonna be up by seven.”

Beth yawned, nodding as she got up to change into a sleep shirt. With so many kids in the house, even Rio had agreed he needed to be wearing pajama bottoms when they weren’t physically in bed, knowing that all the kids were unpredictable.

Surprisingly, it was the doorbell waking them up, as Rhea dropped Marcus off much to Danny and Jane’s delight. Beth started up brunch as they raced to look under the Christmas tree.

“Nobody touches anything until I get there. Kenny, grab the camera.” Beth yelled from the kitchen as she got the crepe batter ready, she liked it to chill for a bit before frying them up. 

It wasn’t long after that, that Annie and Ben joined them, still in pajamas. The Hill family followed about thirty minutes later. The kids tackled the presents, and even Rio seemed to get into the childish glee of Christmas.

Instead of doing her normal, formal Christmas Dinner, Beth had decided to just set the tables and put all the food in the kitchen. Everyone could either sit at the table, outside under the heaters, or in the tv room. 

“So you went really low key this year. Not even having the kids dress up.” Ruby commented, looking over at Beth as the kids ripped open presents.

Beth looked over at her best friend and shrugged. “I’m a new person, so I need to do new things. It’s too easy to go back to bad habits, and I don’t want that.”

“B, I don’t think you can go back that far anymore. Besides, without Dean pulling you to be what he wanted, you’re finding yourself. That’s a good thing.”

“Also true, besides if this year has taught me anything, it's that there are better things to focus on. The kids are having fun, it’s relaxed, there is no formality and it’s nice, and just comfortable.” Beth admitted.

“It’s a good look for you. As much as I had reservations about “gangfriend” here, he’s actually good for you, even though you continue to do questionable legal activities.”

“Thanks, and fair, who would have guessed that would suit me.”

“But you’re also doing something you love. That shop and all the craft stuff you get to do there. That’s good for you too. No one telling you what to do anymore.”

The rest of the day stayed easy. The kids played with new toys and video games. Next week they’d be off to spend time with Dean and Judith in Florida. Easy was better at the holidays.

It was New Years Eve Day, Ruby and Annie had managed to talk Beth into taking a spa day with them at an actual spa. Beth had been reluctant, but had been assured that proper precautions were in place.

“Well B, we did it. We survived the year even though it was trying to kill us. You and your gangfriend are in something.” Ruby said with a bit of a snort. She held up her glass in a toast. 

“Here’s to 2021 and praying it’s more normal than 2020.”

Annie snickered. “Well, I guess gangfriends’ part of the new normal.” Beth raised an eyebrow. “Not that, that’s a bad thing. He’s an upgrade from Deansie.” she admitted, as she raised her glass.

“May 2021 be one of positive change rather than the dumpster fire we just survived.” 

Beth closed her eyes as she looked back at the year. It had been a lot, but it had worked out. If anything, things were better for all of them. The kids were happy and healthy. Sure they were still not in school, and homeschooling wasn’t easy, but they had made it through.

After massages and facials, Beth went back to the changing room and found a dress with a matching mask laying on the couch. Sticking her head out of the room, she called for Ruby.

“Ruby, my clothes are gone, and there is a dress here instead..”

She could hear her friend chuckle. “Just get dressed Beth, it’s worth it.”

Beth found all her makeup and shoes to go with the dress. Knowing her friend was up to something, she went along with getting dressed and made up. Leaving the changing room, Beth looked for Ruby, but an attendant told her that her friends had left, but that her car was pulled up for her. 

Knowing this was some kind of surprise, Beth went along with it, finding a black town car waiting for her. She had expected to find Rio in the car, but it was empty, save the driver. Although, there was a chilled bottle of Champagne in an ice bucket, with a glass.

“Pour yourself a glass, Ms Marks. We’ll be at your destination shortly.”

Whoever had taken her clothing, had also taken her phone, so all she could do was drink the wine and look out the window as they drove into downtown Detroit. After about thirty minutes, they pulled into the valet area of an upscale restaurant. Beth found herself outside a stone building with the lettering, Townhouse Detroit. She frowned, since the virus, Beth had been very unwilling to go to restaurants. The driver opened the door for her and she entered the dark restaurant. 

It was a relief that the restaurant was empty, but she could hear noise in what she could only guess was the kitchen. A host helped her with her mask before leading her out to a bistro lit patio. 

There was a beautiful fireplace and a candle lit table, there were couches near the fireplace, where a man in a dark suit and a matching mask waited for her.

Beth smiled, “Kind of figured you had something to do with my new wardrobe, don’t know how you got Ruby to go along with this though.”

“I got my ways, I think she’s warmin’ up to me.”

“So what is all this?”

“Well, this was how we reconciled, even though there’s a pandemic, don’t mean we can’t celebrate.”

“Did you rent out the whole restaurant?”

Rio shrugged, “Kinda, they’ve been closed for a bit, due to Covid, so I paid to use the space and the staff. Everyone wins.”

For the first time, Beth noticed the music playing in the background, and remembered it from last year.

“Is that?”

He nodded offering his hand. “Care to dance?”


End file.
